Color Me Swooooon: A Book Review

‘Color Me Swooooon’ is - as the name and unorthodox spelling suggests - a colouring book published in America, created by UK based artist, writer and publisher Mel Elliot. It features over 60 simple, line drawn illustrations, each depicting a different male celebrity from a selection of some of the most popular and prominent in current society. The drawings have been designed for the reader to colour in at their leisure, and are accompanied by a variety of related activities, such as poems, word searches and crossword puzzles.

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It’s one of the latest incarnations in the recent resurgence of adults colouring books, but this particular publication has moved away from the initial trend of intricate, calming patterns and instead focused solely on famous men deemed attractive by society’s current conventional beauty standards. Due to the subject matter, the intended target audience is presumably primarily female; consequently - although the book could be perceived as a light-hearted, harmless example of novelty fun - it could be seen as an alarming representation of where current society has not only chosen to place its values, but where it’s teaching young girls to place theirs too. In many ways, it’s hard to see this book as anything other than a complete double standard; if a mirrored concept existed that featured images of conventionally attractive female celebrities, it would surely be condemned and derided for objectifying women.

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The lack of heavy detail or shading in the illustrations ensures that they are ideal for the purpose of colouring in, but the paper itself feels thin; this could be perceived as a weak design choice that lacks foresight. The design of the illustrations themselves is simple and largely effective; the majority of the celebrities who comprise the subjects are easily identifiable, but others are slightly more ambiguous in comparison. However, the design in context is considerably weaker; the layout feels childish and overly simplistic. It would be easy to assume that the book was intended for young children, if it were not for the fact that the text- based elements contain a few adult references, in addition to the selection of adult men as a subject choice. The wording in the text is similarly puerile, and, although no target age is stated, it seems altogether too clichéd and immature to be enjoyed by anyone over the age of 14. A small text box next to the bar code states that it falls under the category of “pop culture/humor”, but it’s decidedly not funny; in many ways it feels quite inappropriate and almost voyeuristic; openly encouraging the audience to lust over men simply due to their looks.